Your password may be required if you’re visiting the US

If you come from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya, your social media passwords may soon be required to enter the USA according to Security Secretary John Kelly. According to news reports this was one of several issues considered as additional screening measures to vet refugees and visa applicants from those countries during talks around Trump’s embattled executive order on immigration. While this was not an official policy decision, to suggest it on the record indicates the Government’s intention.

Using social media as part of the verification process is not new. The Obama administration had proposed a Social media identification policy however requiring passwords ended up not being a part of it.

Should this pass, there will be challenges. Noting how easy it is to create fake social media accounts, one may wonder why this was on the agenda.

I shall not touch on the obvious privacy issues arising with one volunteering their password.